The Palace and the Palais

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“This tram will terminate in Fitzroy Street. There is a fire at the Palais Theatre”
A collective grown filled the tram, not for the inconvenience, but at the prospect of another landmark being razed from the St Kilda landscape.
“Just maybe, it is the Palace”, somebody whispered hopefully to themselves. “Everybody confuses those two buildings”. More pics on ilovestkilda.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed

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“When I start work at 6am, the city is totally deserted, just us tradies heading off to the building sites. On Saturday morning it’s a bit different though. There are all these ravers staggering around off their heads and dressed in weird gear. Eyes hanging out of the their heads.

I wouldn’t have a clue where they’ve been. I just drink at the pub.
It must be somewhere around Little Collins and Elizabeth, though. When they see me they go ‘haa haa, you’re going to go to work’.”

Circling the ruin

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Excavating for the basement car park – Collins Street
(near Southern Cross Station), Melbourne
The old foundations will be preserved but what will the good people of Melbourne make of the graffiti the next time it’s dug up?

Gleaner and the cleaner #4

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View from a carpark

“Isn’t it a bit cold out there” she shouted as they bounced down the side of the building. She couldn’t help wondering if they ever got that “pit of the stomach feeling” everybody else gets they drop too quickly in a lift.
“Nah” he replied “we just keep working, any weather. It’s the only way to keep warm. If it’s windy and we’re being smashed against the building, then we stop. That’s just commonsense”.

Student life for sale

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Overheard conversation – outside the new development in Orr St, Carlton

“It’s a long haul from the old days of student share houses. The places might have been falling down and the furniture often gleaned from the streets but at least they had charm and there was plenty of space to party.

Now they stack them into shiny new developments and charge exhorbitant rent for a single room no bigger than a car space. It’s hard to imagine how those overseas students really enjoy themselves here. see www.transnationalandtemporary.com.au

As for local students, most them don’t move out of home because they can’t afford the rent.”